50 Random Facts List #168

Most stars exist in binary or triple star systems. It is hypothesized that up to 85% of stars are gravitationally bound to another star in a multiple star system. Therefore, solitary stars (such as the Sun) are actually not the norm in the universe, but in fact are a rarity.

27. Octopuses have been observed acquiring shiny and reflective objects and planting them around their homes in the seabed like a garden. The song “Octopus’s Garden” by the Beatles was inspired by the captain of a boat informing Ringo Starr of this fact while on vacation.

28. Actress Louise Fletcher, who won an Oscar for Nurse Ratched in ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest’ and played Kai Winn on ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,’ was born to parents who were both deaf. She was taught to speak by a hearing aunt, who also introduced her to acting.

29. Ernst Röhm was a close friend of Hitler, a top Nazi leader, and a homosexual. Hitler was aware of Röhm's homosexuality. They were so close they addressed each other as du (German familiar form of "you"). No other top Nazi leader enjoyed that privilege.

30. 75% of “photography” in the IKEA catalog is actually not photography at all, it’s CGI.

To be an alumni you don't need to actually graduate but instead just have attended the school.

32. USA once fed information to the USSR about an extremely deadly nerve gas called “GJ” that was nearly impossible to create. Although initially intended to waste Soviet resources on a wild goose chase, Soviet scientists were successful in replicating “GJ” and produced the now-infamous Novichok agents.

33. Plague doctors often were not real physicians. They rarely treated patients and instead kept a record of those who were contaminated for demographic purposes. Occasionally they would sell false cures to the sick.

34. At 12:00 a.m. on New Year’s Eve 2017, three men pulled off a 6 million dollar jewelry heist only a half mile from Times Square and 7,000 NYPD officers. Police said that the men waited till midnight, when the officers would be the busiest, to break into KGK Holding Jewelry.

35. A LEGO Death Star built to the scale of a classic Minifigure would be 3.52 km in diameter, or 1066 stories high.

The little pepper or strawberry attached to a tomato pincushion has a purpose: it’s filled with emery, which is meant to sharpen your needles and pins.

37. The US army guys who took part in the clean up of Enewetak Atoll after nuclear testing are dying from radiation-related illnesses and the US government won't recognize them.

38. 40 years before James Cameron's "Avatar" was released, the "Noon Universe" Russian sci-fi novels were published. Set on a forest planet called Pandora in the 22nd century, inhabited by humanoids called Nave (compared to the "Na'vi" in Avatar).

39. VeggieTales never recreated any new testament stories from the bible because the show's creator, Phil Vischer, refused to portray Jesus as a vegetable.

40. A 7-year-old boy named Titus Adams walked barefoot in the snow for half a mile to get help for his mom after she was thrown from her crashed pick-up truck. His courageous half-mile walk amid 23-degree weather saved his mother's life, authorities in Greeley, Colorado, said.

Baby Got Back by American rapper Sir Mix-a-lot was a call to see beauty in diversity. Sir Mix-a-lot used the song to blame the media for skewing the notion of beauty and hoped his music would empower women of all shapes and sizes.

42. In 1982, the Danish Navy accidentally fired a Harpoon missile during maneuvers in the Kattegat. The missile ended up destroying several properties though no human injury was reported. They later called this the 'oops' missile.

43. Louis Pasteur, the scientist who discovered pasteurization, originally did not experiment with milk, but beer.

44. The famous "guilty look" dogs have when they realize they've done something wrong isn't actually guilt. It's actually fear of being punished.

45. In December 1987, Nikki Sixx from Mötley Crüe was presumed dead from a heroin overdose. On route to the hospital the paramedic, who was a big Crüe fan, revived Sixx with two shots of adrenaline. His 2 minutes in death were the inspiration for the song "Kickstart My Heart".

The World Chess Federation rearranges tournament matchups so that the Iranians never have to play Israelis because Iran does not recognize the existence of Israel.

47. 85 million years before butterflies existed, there was another insect named Oregramma illecebros that looked and acted exactly like a butterfly.

48. According to a psychological study, being a friend with your manager would come at a cost. To avoid the perception of favoritism, managers are more likely to deny their coworker-friends bonuses and other perks, even if they deserve such rewards.

49. After the big bang, only hydrogen and helium along with trace amounts of lithium and beryllium were created. The other 86 elements found in nature were all created by nuclear reactions inside stars.

50. In 2001, Tony Kirwan quit his job as an electrician and founded Destiny Rescue, a nonprofit dedicated to getting children out of sex slavery. Since 2011, the organization has rescued almost 2,000 children.